Occupy Update: Final Tally for OPD Mayhem: $5.67 Million

You might remember Scott Olsen, the Marine Corps vet who was critically wounded by Oakland Police using “non-lethal” weapons to disperse an Occupy protest in October 2011. He was shot in the head by police using a gun that shoots lead-filled “beanbags,” from a distance of about 15 – 25 feet.

When Olsen was felled by the shot, many people rushed to his aid, only to be assaulted by a “flash-bang” grenade thrown at the crowd. These grenades emit a deafening bang and blinding flash. See the video below to fully understand these weapons.

This is the last of the Occupy Oakland cases to settle. The city had previously agreed to pay $1.17 million to 12 other Occupy protesters injured that night (Campbell et al v. City of Oakland). The City of Oakland and OPD have agreed to abide by a crowd control policy negotiated by the National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU as a result of the settlement in Campbell and another suit. The new policy prohibits impact munitions and explosives from being used in the manner they were used during the Occupy events, and sets guidelines for constitutional policing of demonstrations and other crowd events. And John Stewart’s take:

The LCRRA is a model resolution that protects the fundamental rights and liberties of law-abiding Americans to be free of arbitrary monitoring, surveillance, detention, search, or arrest by local law enforcement authorities; and focuses local law enforcement agencies on their core public safety mission.